After keeping us waiting for more than a year, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finally came back into our lives on Thursday night, and wasn’t it just a glorious return?
While British fans were thrilled to have the country’s biggest drag competition back on our screens, many have taken issue with the first elimination, which saw cabaret legend Joe Black sent home after failed to impress the judges with her Brighton Pavilion-inspired runway look.
The day after her elimination aired, we spoke to Joe over the phone while she “lounged seductively on a chaise longue, wearing beautiful robes and a turban in my wonky antique-looking basement flat” (“not really – I’m actually sat on a little folding Argos chair – but we don’t have to tell the people that”).
Joe had plenty to say after her Drag Race exit, talking us through the online outrage about her elimination, how she really felt about the judges’ critiques and why she now feels like Brighton Pavilion is “haunting” her...
The first episode was filmed in March but it finally came out last night, how were you feeling in the lead-up, knowing you were going home at the end of it?
I was kind of caught up in the announcement and the press and the excitement, and then about a week and a half ago I kind of went “oh god, episode one!!!!” and then I got the proper nerves.
It’s been a long year, so I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. And I spent a long time thinking to myself, “maybe the look wasn’t very David Bowie”... and then, suddenly, I’m looking online going, “oh no, no, no, it was very David Bowie. I wasn’t wrong”.
There’s been a lot of outrage online about you being sent home, how does that feel?
Well, Tracy Beaker was absolutely fuming! Did you see?
Obviously it’s [hard] to leave first… it’s an iconic placement, no one forgets the first out! But the response has been more than I could possibly have imagined.
The outpouring of love and support – and outrage and fury and confusion – it’s been incredible, and I couldn’t have wished for more love from everyone.
At the time, how did you think you’d actually got on in the challenge? Were you surprised to wind up in the bottom two?
I was surprised. When the judges’ critiques started I was like, “aha, this is what’s happening”. Because you don’t know what they’re going to say.
I knew what I’d signed up for, I knew they would say things I didn’t necessarily like or that were not necessarily positive or that I agreed with, because that’s what the show is… I don’t know if you could see it on my face but [during the critiques] I was just looking forward like “aha… OK… this is the way this is going”.
But I thought I looked really nice, actually, I was really, really pleased.
Let’s talk about the critiques, starting with your Bowie look. Michelle Visage said it wasn’t a recognisable Bowie look… what did you think when she said?
I mean, I guess Michelle Visage hasn’t seen the Life On Mars? video. Or American Horror Story: Freakshow. Or American Gods. Or when Gaga did that look at the Grammys [laughs].
I did that [look], because it was one that had been referenced quite a lot. When I think of David Bowie, that’s the look that comes to my mind, because it’s so alien – obviously a lot of his looks were alien, that was the whole point – but it was a very androgynous look, and I loved the whole vibe of it. And if I had to redo it all again, I would do exactly the same thing.
It was the Brighton-inspired look that seemed to take the most heat on the runway. What do you think of those critiques now?
Well, we’re in a lockdown, so we’ve all got a bit of time on our hands. What the judges could do is take a little virtual tour of Brighton Pavilion [laughs]...
Every city in the UK has something about it, and if you actually live there, you take away different things. I think maybe for them, if they think of Brighton, they think campy British seaside ridiculousness. And, of course, Brighton is one of the most wonderful of the campy British seaside places, and it’s my favourite place in the whole of the UK. But everyone takes their own thing from it.
As a Brighton resident, I would say that I represented Brighton fairly well, and from what I can see on social media, other Brighton residents are like, “it was the Pavilion. It was definitely the Pavilion”.
But I realised recently, the Pavilion is haunting me – I see it absolutely everywhere. It’s everywhere anyway in Brighton, but now I’m clocking it.
And one of the great things about being on Drag Race is the memes. I did this for a few reasons – to become a meme, so I could afford a two-bedroom flat, and to convince Sophie Ellis-Bextor to be my friend.
How’s that last one going?
Terribly. I’ve had no response from Sophie, but I will continue trying.
You had your critiques, you found out you were in the bottom two against Bimini Bon Boulash and then the two of you had to lip sync. What was that like?
Do you know what? What was mostly going through my head was “oh god, I can barely walk in this dress, let alone do a lip sync to Frankie Goes To Hollywood”. I mean, both of us were fairly encumbered by our outfits. Bimini is the smallest non-binary person in showbusiness – Ginny Lemon is the hairiest non-binary person in showbusiness – and Bimini was basically on stilts, while I was in a dress that I could barely move in.
I’m not really the lip syncing type, but again, I knew what I signed up for, and I was like, “right, let’s be silly”. And beforehand I was like, “right, Joe. Has anyone else pretended to be in a lift on Drag Race? I don’t think they have. Now is your time”. And I stand by the lift!
As someone who has watched Drag Race for many years, how did your expectations of being on the show compare to the reality?
You feel like you’ve stepped into some kind of secret camera, you do kind of feel like you’re in the television. And that was bizarre… so bizarre.
Being a part of it is surreal. And you go through moments of not quite feeling like it was real, and that it happened. But it did! I saw it last night for the first time – it happened!
I have watched my entrance so many times… and it’s not even about seeing myself, it’s about everyone’s reactions. And I couldn’t see them when it actually happened, but I have zoomed in on Lawrence Chaney grabbing invisible pearls so many times, and Ginny going “yes bitch!!”, because it makes me feel so happy that people I adore and love were so happy to see me walk in.
Who are you rooting for to take the crown at this very early stage?
I’m going to say three people. Lawrence Chaney, Ginny Lemon and, despite the fact she sent me home, I love her dearly, Bimini Bon Boulash.
I’ve known Ginny and Lawrence a while… I met Lawrence when he first started doing drag – he’s admitted he was a big fan of mine when he started out – and I just knew there was something about him that drew me to him… the talent, the energy, the charisma.
Ginny, again, talent, energy charisma. She is punk as fuck, she is everything I love about British drag. She is ridiculous and wonderful and ludicrous and just a larger-than-life character. And so non-traditional as well, I adore her.
And Bimini… you know, I feel a bizarre connection with Bimini now that we had that moment, of me pretending to be a lift and her standing on her head. I think she’s so talented, she really represents a new wave of drag, which I think can coexist with all the other types of drag. And the kind of drag that she does, she is so excellent at it. Top-tier, East London vegan drag.
Is there anything you would do differently given the opportunity?
No. No. I think I stayed true to myself, and I’m anything if not stubborn. And if I’d changed things, it wouldn’t have been authentic to me. There’s absolutely no point in going on such a huge platform and being anything other than 100% yourself.
It was short and sweet but do you feel like you got to show people what Joe Black is about?
I don’t think I got to show people the depth and breadth of what I had prepared, but all those things will be going on Instagram as the show goes on.
And once things open up a bit and it’s safe to be doing shows and seeing people and licking their faces and stuff, the real race starts afterwards, and I’m hoping I’ll be seeing people at shows and showing people who I am, and crossing my fingers for that official UK season two tour.
New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will be available every Thursday from 7pm on BBC Three. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.